Is this plan sound?

[greginky]

Here is what I am doing to re-establish positive credit. I had/have zero credit. I haven't had credit in years other than a credit card from Tribute which I defaulted on. I went and bought a tv on payments from a rental place that reports to Equifax. I got a secured credit card from my credit union. I am going to use the credit card to pay my $94/mo TV payment then pay off the credit card each month. That gives me 2 open lines of credit for one payment. There is another rental place here that reports to all 3 CB after you pay an item off. I am going to get a TV stand from them and pay it off in 6 months so that I have another line of good credit. I am in month 3 of getting my student loans rehabilitated, that is 2 more loans. So I am assuming 2 more open lines of credit once they are turned over to a regular lender in September.I am paying off 2 hospital bills that will be done in 4 more months, so they will come off my CR, and I have a few smaller bills that I can take care of. By September or October I should only have the credit card bill I defaulted on left on my CR, assuming I don't get laid off or anything. The credit card bill is only 2 years old and still within the 5 year SOL here in my state, so after everything else is paid off, and I have the ability to pay the credit card in full, I plan on trying the 1 2 punch first to see if I can get rid of it that way, if not, I wanted to make sure I had the ability to pay it in full if that doesn't work. My credit scores are all 3 currently 502, 508, 515. I joined Identity guard so I could watch them, plus I wanted to establish a baseline so I can see where I am at by the end of the year. I hope I can raise the scores significantly by the end of the year, at least to 650 I hope. I don't know if that is possible or not. I was told that when I get my first car loan, that the interest rate will still be high even if I have a good credit score because most car companies look at car credit and I have not had any since early 1992. So I plan on getting a car that I can pay off in 2 years so that I can get a good interest rate the next time. Well, that is my plan, any suggestions?

[Scorepro]

I think u have taken a lot of steps in the right direction. Good job!!
U say that the medical bills will come off when ur done with them. Why is that so? Is that part of the deal of your payment plan? If not, there is no reason why they WILL come off, automatically that is. They will get modified to defect they are paid.

As for the credit card, has it been charged off? Has it been sent to a collection agency? How much is owed on it? Without knowing these answers I can only venture to say that while ur taking steps in the right direction, that credit card will bring u down, so I would say you need to tackle that in some way. Have u tried negotiating with the credit card company? As the account gets older, it is impacting ur credit less and less but it is still impacting it none the less.

How about these other accounts u are paying off? Were they reported as late pays or had they gone to collection as well.

Have you calculated what your overall debt to credit ratio is? These are all factors you need to consider.

U could also try to get added as an authorized user to someones account that has a long credit history and great credit. U can hand them over the card when u get it so that there are no worries that you will use it.

Please provide some more specifics about how ur report reads so that I can answer more on point.

[greginky]

Scorepro,
The credit card was charged off and sent to a collection agency. It says I owe $840. It is almost 2 years old so still within the 5 year SOL for my state. I have not tried to negotiate with the Credit card company yet. I was waiting to pay off other debts first. I just took a big hit today, did my taxes and found out I owe over $3300 this year. With all the arrangements I have made to pay creditors, this is a big blow, needless to say, I won't be filing that return anytime soon.
All my debts are with CAs. 2 hospital bills I have made arrangements to pay will be paid off in about 4 more months. Yeah they will stay on my CR, but they will show 0 balance at least. I have a bill of $42 for ambulance ride charged off. Another for x-Rays of $35, I figure I can pay those 2 off. I have a debt to a jeweler for $272 charged off, it will come off in Aug 2011. I owe an old phone company bill that is set to come off in Sept of this year, it is almost $800, that one I am going to ignore and let it fall off on it's own. All my other negative items are 8 student loans, 2 of them were sold to another creditor, who I am paying, and I am paying on the remaining 4 as well in the rehabilitation program, But the 2 old ones that were sold are still on my CR showing a 0 balance. Everything is being paid on except the jeweler, and the ambulance and x-ray, I am waiting till I get my student loans out of default and the 2 hospital bills paid. Then I am going to use the money I am paying the hospital bill with and pay those debts.

[Trish]

You should look into the HIPAA process for the medical bills.. there is a thread in the beginner's section that explains it.
Also on that phone bill that's due to fall off this year... you could always go ahead and try disputing it to see if you can get it to come off early. It should be out of the collection SOL so there's no worry about them trying to sue you.